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☆ Tesla's price cuts have triggered a serious surge in buyer interest
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Interest in Teslas on car-shopping website Edmunds surged after last week's price cuts. Tesla's price cuts also come at a time when shoppers are still struggling to find good deals on new vehicles, making discounts like Tesla's all the more appealing, Caldwell wrote. No longer priced as luxury vehicles, Tesla's cars will now compete with EVs marketed to mainstream buyers. The price cuts also allow Tesla's vehicles to qualify for an additional $7,500 tax credit on new EVs as part of the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act, another draw for shoppers. "Price cuts of 20% or more, with incentives, nationwide don't come around often, so acting now is in your best interest before any corrections in the opposite direction."

☆ Electric vehicle sales hit a tipping point in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Bloomberg includes plug-in hybrids in its count of “electric vehicles,” but a large majority are purely battery-powered models. It’s unclear exactly why 5% seems to mark the point where EV sales really take off. The Mustang Mach-E, which hit the market in in 2021, was the first electric vehicle to take a notable chunk of Tesla’s still-dominant EV market share. The act, passed this year, changes the rules around which electric vehicles are eligible for consumer tax credits. Given their popularity and already high sales, incentive rules could help push EV sales significantly higher.

☆ If you're looking for a car deal this Christmas, you may be out of luck. The pandemic killed the end-of-year blowout sale for good.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Nora Naughton | Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Don't let ads fool you: holiday car deals will be meager this year. "If you're specific about what car you want, you're basically buying it whenever it comes into stock." After pandemic-related factory shutdowns in 2020 were compounded by a global shortage of semiconductors in 2021, dealers and car companies learned to do business on leaner inventories. According to Caldwell, most holiday deals this year are finance-related, like subsidized APRs or a limited period of 0% interest. And with supply chain woes expected to ease slightly next year, car companies could start building at higher rates again.

☆ Electric cars are shredding the brand loyalty automakers have spent decades building up — and it's great news for Kia and Hyundai
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ford, Hyundai, and Kia have EVs bringing in the most new customers. GM CEO said 40% of customers purchasing GM EVs are new to the company. Car companies looking to conquest buyers to a brand can end up spending billions of dollars on new ad campaigns and R&D efforts to revamp their image, only to see meager or temporary shifts in loyalty. In remarks to journalists last week, GM CEO Mary Barra said 40% of GM's EV buyers are new to the company. GM is currently playing a long game with EV customers to drum up new loyalty with a call center for all electric vehicle drivers and shoppers.

Car buyers are watching the clock tick down for the Inflation Reduction Act’s updated electric vehicle tax incentives to kick in. If you shop right nowState and federal EV incentives already exist. Their car was built in Tennessee and qualified for the full $7,500 federal tax credit, which they were able to combine with a Massachusetts EV tax exemption of $2,500, effectively knocking $10,000 off the price. Plus, caps on how many vehicles can qualify for existing tax incentives have kept some buyers on the sidelines. If you shop in 2024After next year, the IRA makes an important change to how consumers apply their tax credit.

☆ It's the best time to buy a used car in 16 months — as long as you don't have to take out a big loan
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Used car prices have fallen to their lowest level since August 2021. As the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates in an effort to cool inflation, interest rates on car loans have risen in tandem. In October, the average annual percentage (APR) rate on used car loans rose to 9.6%, the highest level in over a decade. For those less reliant on financing for their car purchases, however, this could be their best chance to buy an affordable car in over a year. While the new car market is expected to cool off as well, used car prices continue to be where the best bargain is.

☆ Lucid delivered a startlingly small share of its produced cars to customers — revealing a problem plaguing EV companies vying to be the next Tesla
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Alexa St. John | Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Rivian and Lucid have reported delivering far fewer cars than they've built this year. Lucid reported that in the third quarter of this year, it built 2,282 cars but delivered just 1,393 of them to customers. Rivian, too, has seen a gap, though less extreme: The Amazon-backed startup built 7,363 vehicles and delivered 6,584 in Q3. For the first nine months of 2022, Rivian had produced 14,317 cars, and delivered 12,278, a rate of 86%. Still, House said she expects vehicles produced to continue to outpace vehicles delivered in the near-term as Lucid accelerates production and starts delivering internationally.

☆ The direct-to-consumer sales model Rivian and Lucid tout as a key unlock could hamstring them in booking revenue — while Ford and GM reap the benefits of working with dealers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Nora Naughton | Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Many EV startups like Rivian and Lucid have opted to sell their vehicles directly to consumers. The DTC model means their revenue depends on getting cars to customers — which isn’t always so easy. Competing with the legaciesWith direct-to-consumer sales, Rivian and Lucid are responsible for getting vehicles into customers' hands after they're produced. The revenue they bring in, logged once a customer has their vehicle, depends on the startups' ability to deliver efficiently. The messy business of putting a car in a customer's driveway — and finding customer financing — are outsourced to franchised dealerships.

☆ Lucid's fight to sell cars in Texas could give it a leg up in the ultracompetitive electric-vehicle market
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Nora Naughton | Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The resulting legal battles could slow crucial deliveries for EV startups. It's also a sign that there could be more legal confrontations to come for other budding EV makers, like Rivian and Fisker. What consumers can expectLast year, Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid joined forces to push for bills allowing direct sales in eight states. Many of these efforts are still in progress while Rivian, Lucid, and Tesla continue to sell vehicles remotely. Even with the legal troubles, EV startups are moving full speed ahead on direct to consumer.

☆ There are finally more cars to buy — but there's a new reason Americans can't afford them
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

High interest rates are hitting car buyers just as vehicles are becoming more available. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates again on Wednesday by .75% to TKSign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. But climbing interest rates are throwing a wrench in the cogs. The Federal Reserve has hiked interest rates several times this year — most recently on Wednesday — with the intention of cooling spending and taming record-high inflation. "New cars may finally become more available just when most Americans can no longer afford them," Cox chief economist Jonathan Smoke said in an October note.

☆ New cars are finally back in stock — but Americans might not be able to afford them
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Michael Wayland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Mario Tama | Getty ImagesDETROIT — New cars are slowly becoming more widely available, as supply chain bottlenecks finally start to ease. But now, an increasing number of Americans might not want them or be able to afford them. With the Federal Reserve aggressively hiking interest rates to fight inflation, consumers are finding that the cost of financing a new car is suddenly a lot higher than it was even earlier this year. That means many Americans may no longer to be able to afford the new cars that are starting to arrive on dealer lots. That, combined with rising interest rates, is pushing more car shoppers to look at used vehicles.

☆ If you're waiting for a better time to buy a new car, keep waiting
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-04 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Average car prices are shooting higher and higher thanks to continued auto parts shortages. The end result: Don’t expect the car market to return to normal anytime soon. The average car on America’s roads today is over 12 years old, according to S&P Global Mobility. In past years, when the Fed pushed up interest rates, car makers would come out with artificially low interest rate car loans – sometimes even 0% – as a purchase incentive. Car shoppers without good credit are already being forced out of the new car market, said Smoke.

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